


Personal Space

by BirdOfHermes



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Pillow Fights, Schmoop, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Sexual Tension, flashbacks to tiny!Barry and tiny!Iris, sleeping together but literally just sleeping, westallen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 06:10:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5153186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdOfHermes/pseuds/BirdOfHermes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since the beginning, Barry and Iris have never really paid attention to rules about personal space. But in this case, it's a good thing. Pre-series WestAllen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Personal Space

**Author's Note:**

> Dipping a toe into the WestAllen fandom. I hope you like it. Posted on Tumblr, and people seemed to dig it, so I figured I'd add it here too.

It started when they were kids.

For months after Barry had been sent to live with Joe and Iris West, he couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned, he cried, and the rare nights when he could sleep, he was plagued with nightmares of his mother’s ashen face and the horrible red-and-yellow blurs that stole her from him. The house he stayed in now was so foreign to him, so alien, and he hated how alone it made him feel.

One night, he heard the hinges on the door creak and then soft footsteps. Barry wiped his face and sniffled, quieting the slight sobs that had been wracking his small body for the past hour. The covers behind him moved and the mattress pushed down on one side. Barry didn’t turn around. He didn’t want her to see him like this. He didn’t want anyone to see him this way.

Iris settled down next to him and rested one gentle hand on his shoulder. Barry frowned, expecting her to say something to cheer him up or distract him, like when they were in the house together, but she never did. He thought it was strange, until he could hear her breathing slow as she drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, his eyes were heavy and the warmth emanating from her made him relax. A few minutes later, he too was asleep.

In the morning, the only thing she did was shake him awake and remind him that they had to get ready for school. He nodded and rubbed his eyes before watching her walk towards the door.

“Iris?”

She turned, blinking at him in slight surprise. “Yeah?”

He smiled shyly, fidgeting with the covers. “Thanks.”

She returned the smile, just as shyly. “You’re welcome.”

They never really talked about it over the years. As he got used to them, the nightmares were less intense and less frequent, and Iris only came in if Barry had a rough day at school or went to visit his father. The only time things changed was the months before he would leave for college, and they spent almost every night in his bed talking.

Iris had been a busybody as long as Barry knew her, and she was no different in her late teens. He lay with his back propped against the headboard and Iris lay sideways across the bed, her long legs splayed out with the ankles crossed, her head hanging off the end. Every once in a while, he’d poke her with his foot and she’d poke him back and they’d both grin like idiots since they’d been doing that since they were small; sharing space, sharing small touches, sharing everything. Well, everything but that One Thing…

“I just don’t know what you’re gonna do without me there,” Iris said, tilting her head to fix him with an amused stare. “I’m your translator. What if nobody speaks Nerd?”

Barry snorted. “It’s college, Iris. I think that’s kind of the point.”

She sat up, and the waterfall of deep brown hair cascaded down her shoulders, framing her face, and something in Barry sighed quietly at the sight. “And what about bullies? Dudebros and frat guys pushing you around.”

“It’s not high school. Trust me, they have better things to do than bother some random freshman.”

“Fine. What about girls? How are you going to know which ones are sweet and which ones are poison without me around?”

Barry rolled his eyes. “Y’know, I think I’m gonna like not having to put every girl through the Iris West Litmus Test.”

She slapped his shoulder with a pillow, her dark eyes glinting with a challenge. “Whatever! At least one of us knows a quality girl when they see it.”

He smirked, though it was a little sad at the edges. “You have no idea.”

She hit him again and he brought up an arm to block it. “When did you get so smug?”

“When did you get so violent?”

She rose up on her knees, arching an eyebrow. “Need I remind you I am still the reigning champion of the Pillow Wars?”

Barry pursed his lips, covertly sliding one hand beneath the pillow next to him. “Regimes change all the time, Iris.”

He whacked her in the stomach and she shrieked, launching into her own attack. Both of them forgot about being teenagers for a while, pummeling each other until they were both laughing so hard they knew Joe would come storming down the hallway if they didn’t knock it off soon.

Barry pounced and tackled her—gently, of course, he knew his own strength—catching her wrists so she couldn’t move, trying to stop laughing. “He’s gonna kill us if we keep this up.”

Iris took a deep breath and nodded, her giggles dying down. “Sure, that’s why. It’s not like you were losing or anything.”

“God, you are so competitive.”

“Someone has to be in this family. You are way too laidback to be as smart as you are.”

“Well, you may be Queen of the Pillow Wars, but I’m still stronger than you.”

“Oh, is that right? Ten bucks says I can get out of this.”

“You’re on.”

She squirmed and wiggled against him, and Barry soon realized what he’d gotten himself into. Iris was always modest, but it was almost two in the morning and she wore her night attire: an oversized sweatshirt—one of his old ones, in fact—and basketball shorts that only hung a few inches down her thighs. It left miles and miles of smooth, dark skin bare, and his mind started conjuring up images of things he’d like to do. Mainly kissing every single inch of said skin from her ankles all the way up to where the shorts began.

Iris finally went still and blew a lock of hair out of her eyes, scowling. “Alright, so maybe I’m not the Hulk. You’re stronger than you look, beanpole.”

He grinned. “It’s always the quiet ones.”

She smiled, but it started to fade after a moment. Barry tilted his head, his voice soft. “What’s wrong?”

Iris bit her bottom lip. “I’m gonna miss you.”

He hung his head a little. “Iris…”

“I know you don’t wanna talk about it,” she said. “But I am. A lot.”

He let her go and sat back against the headboard again, not meeting her eyes. “I know. Me too.”

She crawled up next to him and he automatically lifted an arm so she could curl into his side like always, laying her head on his shoulder. He shut his eyes and breathed in the scent of her, of cocoa butter and strawberry shampoo, and listened to her soft breaths. “I’m still gonna call you all the time and send you stupid texts in the middle of the night.”

“You’d better, Barry Allen.”

He took a deep breath, glancing at the alarm clock on his nightstand. He rubbed her arm a little. “It’s late. We should get some sleep.”

“Yeah.” To his surprise, she leaned across his body and flicked off the lamp, and then settled into him. Usually, they slept jet-pack style, with her smaller frame curled along his back. Some nights he woke up with her arm slung over his waist or their legs tangled together, and as much as he wanted to pretend it had no effect, he loved waking up next to her. Still, the position said more than a little about their relationship: that she was protecting him, comforting him, being his security blanket. They’d never done this before, with her head on his chest and her hand resting on the other side of his waist, her legs trailing down past his.

He licked his lips, wanting to tell her to shift over, but he couldn’t. She was warm. She was close, and he’d be gone soon. A pang of loss and anxiety shot through him, but then Iris sighed and hugged him a bit, her voice a whisper in the dark.

“Go to sleep, Barry.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, closed his eyes, and let go.

 FIN


End file.
